Chapter 59Where She Hears Voices

The roof was cold and silent. Much colder, I felt, than the actual late summer air. Too many things felt wrong all of a sudden. Strangely enough, they were centered around this little, innocent looking girl. How did she get up here anyway. Isabel, who are you?

"She had something to say about you." Khuna was scowling.

Isabel smiled. "I'm sure she did."

I couldn't contain my curiosity. "How did you get on the roof."

"That isn't important. Valerie needs your help." Isabel sounded serious and she had helped us before. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Alright, where?" I spoke before Khuna could.

"The place she brought you." Isabel looked right at me.

I remembered, the graveyard, ironically where we found Isabel. "I know where it is."

Khuna looked from me to Isabel but saw me nodding to her. "Alright."

I held Isabel in my arms as I jumped off the roof. No matter how she got up there, I considered it partly my responsibility to get her down again. Did she even know where she was, that it was our home. Of course she did, she seemed to know a lot of things in advance. Or did she just act on impulses which made it seem that way.

Get a grip, I told myself, focus is needed.

The three of us walked toward the church with the graveyard, through the town center and the rich suburbs. No one was outside, no lights were on. It was as if that part of the city was vast asleep. I heard whispers though, shards of dreams, thoughts and desires. And the really weird thing... It was as if Isabel made them louder. Channeled through her, enhanced, sharper. She awoke the deeper part in all of us.

And I wasn't sure this was entirely a good thing.

It was very weird and confusing, and it felt a little like the strangeness with Hitori, just so much stronger. I could actually understand some of the flashes. Despite them being completely irrelevant to my situation. What did I care about some car insurance, the love a woman felt for her boss or all those other weird irrelevant thoughts.

As we got nearer to the church each voice was slowly smothered and replaced by chanting. I recognized it but I also felt I was not listening to the now as I was listening to an echo.

An echo in time.

Khuna stopped walking. "Did you hear something?"

"You heard it too? I think it's a sound from a few hours ago." I tried to concentrate, make it clearer, more vivid.

"You sure?" Khuna's voice was riddled with doubt, but not so much in my words, but more in my experience.

I focussed and I became more and more sure that it was Isabel making it stronger. I could almost taste the air, smell the dark smell of those candles and corridors. But was it a memory or a vision? My memories were so vivid that each little sense I could grasp was completed by the memory of the place. Though some things were subtly different.

This couldn't be anything good.

"Let's go." I pulled Khuna forward and jumped the gate, landing on the crunching pebbles.

Isabel followed us by opening the gate herself and closing, locking it behind her. I walked to the grave of Valerie's parents but didn't tell Khuna where this was. If she didn't know I wasn't going to tell her. This wasn't my truth to share.

The lay of the pebbles showed some sign of fighting and someone dragged into the church. Isabel was already opening the front door while we looked through the garden. It was clear, someone had been dragged inside. We went in and downstairs after the minor pause of picking the lock. It was silent, no one was here, but the walls echoed fragments of less than two hours ago. Chants, words, sights, smells. So strange and difficult to focus on any of them. We persevered.

The room Isabel freed herself from was closed and locked, inside was someone crying. "Please open this." I softly spoke to Isabel, hearing the person in the room stop sniffling and standing up.

Isabel opened the door, allowing light to fall inside. The three of us saw her, Valerie, standing like a lost child. Hurt and alone.

Naked.